Concetto by Saveur, Cathay

The Saveur guys, who made French food affordable to Singaporeans, are serving Italian cuisine this time at Concetto. Initial reports commented that Concetto isn’t as impressive as Saveur. I disagree.

From the start, the decor is different. Instead of the ubiquitous industrial decor, Concetto has a polite, cheery post-apocalyptic feel, with herbs quietly making customers high with oxygen and strong afternoon light streaming. Life finds a way within concrete jungle; hope in a hopeless place.

The vegetarian pumpkin fagottini ($8.90), an oblong stuffed pasta shaped like Mcdonald’s apple pie, was complex with evolving layers of sweetness of mashed pumpkin, pumpkin marmalade, raisins, and crunchy almond flakes. The sweetness was undercut by a pinch of salt, brown butter, fried sage leaves, and a mildly piquant vinaigrette, giving it different flavors with each mouthful. It was overly oily and may be too sweet for some, but since I relish sweet mains, this was superb with its complexity: every bite was a different flavor of candy.

At first bite the crab risotto ($12.90) was a little disappointing: too little crab, had a smelly sea taste, sauce was heavy and uninspiring, and rice was undercooked, BUT after we ate a few spoonfuls, we couldn’t stop. It got very addictive. It was like a Rihanna-Chris Brown relationship: it wasn’t good but we went back for more.

The wagyu tender ($26.90), which came with a foie gras tasting like 猪肝 pork liver, was juicy and had a great bite that allowed chewing in an enjoyable way (as opposed to chewing tough food).

Only thing I didn’t enjoy was the dessert, fruit tart ($7.90), overly crusty without any blueberries in it, just a thin layer of its jam. But the macerated strawberries with a rich homemade vanilla ice cream made up for the tart’s inadequacies.

Even the service was first rate, with a cute bespectacled boy checking in with us now and then. Although many servers were young (and, I assume, inexperienced), they were polite, prompt, and looked happy. Great service, tasty and inexpensive food, comfortable environment – what is there to dislike? We spent about $67 for two persons.